Spent most of the day yesterday as well trying to remove my only ghost. Been at this for several weeks and I have no other ideas. The z-stick just will not turn the node red to remove. The z-stick (tried several z-stick Aeotec gen 5) hangs on a solid blue light after the is failed and or the remove failed buttons. I was waiting for a solution to be posted but I will have to email support soon if I do not find one.
You will not be able to remove it as long as the device that caused the ghost has power (is pingable). Itâs usually one of the next higher nodes from the ghost. Remove power to the device that had the bad pairing (even if it is now paired successfully at a higher node ID), then try again to remove the ghost while no power to the device that caused the ghost.
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I can testify to the fact that I was able to remove a Ghost device from the Zwave Settings page, (Remove button). It does require patience, and sometimes the Refresh (and or Discover) button has to be pressed first.
Obviously, this works for a "true" ghost - an entry in the table, not a real device with power.
This is the correct approach - (although I have an external ZStick), I should not have to use it, in the normal course of events.
(C7 - 2.2.7.126)
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Not my first ghost but hopefully the last. LOL Well aware and I have the device sitting on my desk that caused the ghost. (not plugged in) The device was a dsd37 Aeotec Ext/Repeater which melted. It's node ID 2e/46 and I am well over 120 devices. The latest zwave id is B5 so this device was added back a while ago. Not sure that that matters but I have always in the past been able to remove the ghosts. (with some effort)
Well, sounds like you have made the requisite burnt offering.
Only other thing I can suggest is to reboot (not reset) the Z-Wave radio: clean shutdown to red light (Settings, shutdown), remove hub power (at the wall mains, not at the fragile microUSB connector, which can break the solder joints at the PC board), boot by applying power again. Thatâs the only way to reboot the Z-Wave radio, which doesnât shut down when the hub does.
Is there any way to see details of the ghost device to try to identify it...or are we just stuck with trial and error powering off other devices to try to get this to work? It seems so arcane that Z-wave enforces this can't remove a powered device rule.
Not that I know of. I feel your pain.
One user put aluminum foil around his hub so the Z-Wave radio would not be able to ping the ghost. Another put a UPS in his car with the hub and drove far away so that the Z-Wave radio wouldnât be able to ping the device. Another left his hub on the UPS but powered down his house so as to remove power, but that trick doesnât work on battery-powered devices.
Iâve always checked after adding each device before adding another, just to make sure there werenât any ghost issues.
I agree with you, there has to be a better way. The SiLabs 700 chip radio firmware stack is a mess, not ready for prime time.
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did this work? (inquiring minds want to know)
Didnât leave it wrapped long, but worked like a charm for me.
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I believe so. It wasnât me. When the C-7 was first introduced, there was a lot of pain felt by a lot of people. My C-7 sat in the box until mid-September 2020, unopened, while others were on the bleeding edge, until things stabilized. I was happy with my C-5.
Only reasons I got a C-7 were:
-
Be able to pair my Schlage locks and garage door contact sensor as S2;
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To be able to use Tony Fleisherâs (@tony.fleisherâs) excellent Z-Wave Mesh Details app; and
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To be able to use Bryan Copelandâs (@bcopelandâs) built-in Device Firmware Updater app, now that his firmware updater drivers (both with same name and version number but handling different file formats) are no longer supported.
Until @danabw and @erktrek collaborated to produce their excellent treatise on ghost removal:
Ghost Busters - Who you gonna call?, the C-7 was not yet usable in a production environment. Itâs much, much better than it was, but C-7 Z-Wave inclusion is still a mess, and has a way to go before itâs ready for us mere mortals.
I could poke around in the forum to find the examples I mentioned above, but I will leave that as an exercise for the reader. It was about 9 months ago, I believe. Just search for ghost and wade through the thousands of posts.
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Of course, one of the ghosts I am currently fighting is the z-wave stick I was trying to remove to get rid of the other ghosts. Given it is laying on my desk unplugged, I know it has no power, and given I can't add anything else to my currently botched z-wave network, I know there is nothing after it. And yet I still can not remove those ghosts. What a pain in the â â â ..so glad I at least use minimal z-wave...this is why I have a box of old z-wave gear in my basement where I was able to replace it with other protocols.
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Here is how I was able to remove Ghost Device node 0A with remove status : 0
The sequence was:
- Added one of my unused switch;
- Changed his ID to 0A (0A was unremovable ghost);
Well, after this change the device became unresponsive - On the Z-Wave Details found this device with ID 0A
Clicked Refresh button.
Clicked Remove button after it popped up
And Bingo!
Gost Device with ID 0A was removed
And don't forget to unpair this unused device.
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Some Z-Wave USB sticks (Aeotec) are battery powered, and people use that feature to walk around the house, including and excluding using the stick.
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I have powered down the hub for a minutes at a time to restart the z-wave radio many times in my quest to remove this node. I am hoping that 2.2.8 will be able to remove the node. I believe that I have at this point tried all option that I am able to find.
Ghost Nodes are a serious problem and I wish that Silicon Labs and Hubitat (@bcopeland) would get this problem resolved.
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This.
The current Zwave firmware itself is buggy. Hubitat just has to use that buggy firmware, they have no control over it.
The 700 series is "quirky" right now. We can only hope there will be a Silabs Zwave update in an future Hubitat update.
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It has rendered my systems useless and I'm putting non Z Wave alternatives in my cart on amazon right now. I cannot keep chasing things that do not work...this isnt my job, I have one. What a frustrating pile of ewaste.
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Just be careful. There are tons of "quirky" semi-standard Zigbee devices too. Especially the cheap ones from no-name manufacturers.
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Any new ideas? Still fighting the same ghost now for 3 plus months. v 2.2.8 did not help as tech support said that it might.
The only guaranteed way I know to get rid of them if the hub won't is to buy an external USB stick and use the SiLabs PC software.
